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Mission accomplished: Endeavour's dazzling legacy in pictures

NASA launches space shuttle Endeavour's final flight

Commissioned in 1987 to replace the space shuttle Challenger, which was lost in 1986, and named by elementary school students after the British HMS Endeavour, the sailing ship that took Captain James Cook on his first travels, the space shuttle Endeavour has earned a short but noteworthy place in NASA's history of space exploration.

The youngest of NASA's shuttle fleet, Endeavour was built with unique upgrades from previous orbiters, including the drag parachute used on landing; modified electrical and plumbing systems in the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO), to allow for extended stays on board (up to 28 days); more-advanced computers and navigation systems; a solid-state star tracker; and improved steering mechanisms.

As a tool of space innovation, Endeavour has contributed to projects that have had far-reaching impacts on the space program, including the major Hubble Space Telescope repairs that improved Hubble's clarity, and 10 dockings with the International Space Station, during which Endeavour delivered and installed major sections of the international space outpost. This week will see the launch of mission STS-134, Endeavour's 25th and final flight, and the second-to-last space shuttle mission ever.

In this photo, Endeavour is seen on February 9, 2010, over the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern Chile, at an altitude of 183 miles. The craft is silhouetted against the Earth as it prepares to dock with the International Space Station.

The orange troposphere, where all of the clouds we see from Earth are generated and contained, gives way to the whitish stratosphere and then to the mesosphere.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Endeavour touches down on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility on January 20, 1996, after spending nine days in space on the STS-72 mission.

This was just the eighth night landing of the shuttle since the program began in 1981, and only the third night landing ever at Kennedy Space Center.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

On February 18, 2008, as Endeavour prepares for the launch of mission STS-123, the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds aerobatic display team performs a flyby of Launch Complex 39A in commemoration of NASA's 50th anniversary.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Lightning strikes Endeavour's Launch Complex 39A on July 11, 2009, during a major thunderstorm. There were at least 11 lightning strikes within 0.35 miles of the launchpad during the storms, delaying the launch for at least 24 hours while engineers analyzed data and retested systems on the orbiter.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Astronaut Michael Gernhardt is held securely by Endeavour's robot arm during a spacewalk on the STS-69 mission in 1995.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

The Mobile Remote Servicer Base System (MBS) is seen here being moved by the Canadarm2 for installation on the International Space Station during the STS-111 mission to rendevous with the outpost.

Astronauts Peggy A. Whitson, Expedition Five flight engineer, and Carl E. Walz, Expedition Four flight engineer, attached the MBS to the Mobile Transporter during a spacewalk on June 10, 2002. The MBS is an important part of the station's Mobile Servicing System, which will allow the station's robotic arm to travel the length of the station to perform construction tasks.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

In the grasp of the International Space Station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, the Tranquility module is transferred from its location in Endeavour's payload bay to position it on the port side of the Unity node of the International Space Station during mission STS-130 on February 11, 2010.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Held by the robotic Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Canadarm2, the ISS's observation deck, known as the cupola, is relocated from the forward port to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's newly installed Tranquility node.

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Endeavour undocks from the ISS on July 28, 2009, day 14 of mission STS-127, in which the shuttle crew delivered and installed the final two components of the Japanese Experiment Module.

This Endeavour mission notably helped set a record for the most humans in space at the same time in the same vehicle, when, after docking, the ISS and Endeavour crews consisted of 13 people at the station at the same time.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Earth's atmosphere, illuminated by the setting sun, glows brilliant orange and blue in this image taken by the crew aboard the orbiting shuttle Endeavour on August 3, 2009.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Endeavour astronaut Christopher Cassidy, STS-127 mission specialist, uses a range finding device to determine the distance between the shuttle and the International Space Station during docking activities on July 17, 2009.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, appear in the foreground of this perspective view generated from a Landsat satellite image and elevation data collected from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) launched on board Endeavor's mission STS-99 in 2000.

Two radar antennas, one located in the payload bay, the other on a 200-foot mast extending from the payload bay, obtained digital elevation models on a near-global scale, generating what was at the time the most complete high-resolution topographic database of the Earth's surface.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Endeavour prepares to perform the Rendezvous pitch maneuver prior to docking with the International Space Station on November 16, 2008. The Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module can be seen in the cargo bay carrying more than 14,000 pounds of cargo to be delivered to the space station.

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Live from the International Space Station, the ISS and Endeavour crews pose for a group portrait following a space-to-Earth video press conference on November 21, 2008. Astronaut Donald Pettit appears at photo center. Just below Pettit is astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshin-Piper. Clockwise from her position are astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Steve Bowen, Eric Boe, Chris Ferguson, and Michael Fincke, along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, and astronauts Sandra Magnus and Gregory Chamitoff.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

During the first of five spacewalks to be performed alongside the International Space Station by the shuttle's mission STS-127 crew, Tim Kopra grips the handrail on Harmony or U.S. Node 2 on July 19, 2009. When the Endeavour crew returned to Earth, Kopra stayed onboard the station to serve as flight engineer for ISS expedition duty.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

The remote manipulator system arm of the space shuttle Endeavour is seen here transferring the Integrated Cargo Carrier to the International Space Station on July 19, 2009. The ICC is an unpressurized flatbed pallet used to deliver supplies from the shuttle's payload bay.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Seen here landing on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 18, 2009, Endeavour is returning from the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour, the youngest of the shuttle fleet, chalked up some notable firsts for the shuttle program. It was the first shuttle to use a 40-foot-wide drag parachute to help slow it down (seen here), and its second flight, mission STS-47 in 1992, marked the first time an African-American woman (Mae Jemison) had flown in space.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Mission specialist Nicholas Patrick during the third and final spacewalk of mission STS-130 on February 17, 2010, during construction of the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Astronaut Nicholas Patrick, mission STS-130 specialist, is seen looking through a window of the newly installed 360 degree view cupola of the International Space Station on February 18, 2010.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

The primary payloads during Endeavour's STS-130 mission were the Tranquility module and the cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides that provided a 360-degree view around the station.

Here we see a view from inside the cupola, taken on February 17, 2010, with a view of the Sahara desert.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

SRL-1 (Space Radar Laboratory) included the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and the X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) and an atmospheric instrument called Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS). The MAPS experiment measured distribution of carbon monoxide in the lower atmosphere. Here we see an image of the City of Washington D.C. taken by SRL during Endeavor's mission STS-59 on April 18, 1994.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Taken by a member of Expedition 22 from aboard the International Space Station, this image shows Endeavour shortly after undocking from the ISS on Feb. 19, 2010. In the foreground is the newly installed Tranquility node and cupola, along with the Canadarm2 and the Japanese Kibo complex.

Credit: NASA

NASA launches Endeavour's final flight

Within weeks of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, images showed that there was a serious problem with the optical system. The primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, resulting in image quality that was drastically lower than expected. Here, astronauts work on installing Hubble's corrective optics during STS-61 Servicing Mission 1.

With its contributions to the International Space Station and the Hubble Telescope, which continues to return stunning images from deep within space, space shuttle Endeavour is sure to continue to provide humanity with the gift of exploration years after it has flown its final mission.